This morning, my wife and I took a walk through Columbia's largest park. Like most city parks, it is an attractive, landscaped preserve that hosts a number of public events each year.
Unfortunately, I would estimate that 60% of the Park is covered by unused lawns that require regular mowing and occupy space that could be naturalized. Likely designed for easy maintenance and to please the human eye, these lawns stretch across hillsides, between roadways and along paved hike/bike trails. While picnic areas, gardens and recreational fields are certainly appropriate, converting most of these human grasslands to natural habitat would benefit wildlife, reduce fossil fuel use and increase carbon capture.
No doubt, similar parks adorn most cities throughout our country and across the globe. The cumulative impact of naturalizing unused tracts of turf would be enormous.
